Voters don’t like Eyman even if they back initiatives

Former Mukilteo watch salesman Tim Eyman has turned promotion of ballot initiatives into a paying gig and has won some and lost some since bursting onto Washington’s political scene in 1999 with his $35 car tabs measure. But he has developed scar tissue with the voters.

The new Washington Poll asked voters whether they have a “favorable or unfavorable view” of 10 persons and organizations.

Eyman (seattlepi.com file photo)

Just 24.6 percent of those surveyed statewide took a favorable view of Eyman: 43.5 percent voiced an unfavorable view of the initiative promoter. Just under 20 percent had no opinion. And, in the unkindest of cuts — Eyman is a relentless pursuer of the limelight — 12.3 percent of said they had never heard of him.

Eyman does rank higher than the U.S. Congress (20.6 percent favorable) and his unfavorable marks are less than those of the Tea Party movement (55 percent thumbs-down). But Eyman is viewed far less favorable than major political figures that he has sought to demonize.

Gov. Christine Gregoire has a 50.9-40.9 favorable-over-unfavorable rating. The state Legislature, Eyman’s msot frequent target, is seen favorably by 37.7 percent of those surveyed, unfavorably by 37.1 percent, with 23.1 percent voicing no opinion.

Eyman has suggested in the past that shots roll off him. He has continued to pass tax initiatives, and continued to suffer defeats on attempts to hamstring expansion of the state’s transportation infrastructure.

Eyman’s initiative 1185 is ahead 52.0-36.8 percent among likely voters in the Washington Poll. The “No” vote is up by 6 percent over a survey released several weeks ago, but the measure is still likely to pass. No organized opposition has spent money to defeat it.

The initiative would require a two-third “supermajority” from each house of the Legislature to raise taxes or close corporate loopholes. It would also require a majority vote to raise various state fees. Eyman has tapped into new, well-heeled sugar daddies this year: Major oil refiners put up more than $300,000 to put I-1185 onto the ballot — they fear a small per barrel oil spill tax, nearly enacted by the Legislature in 2010 — and the Beer Institute invested $400,000.

Unlike years past, however, editorial voices have been raised against I-1185. Two newspapers that formerly supported Eyman’s “supermajority” initiatives, the Herald of Everett and the Wenatchee World, came out against I-1185 on grounds that the allegedly populist measure is working to benefit Olympia’s entrenched lobbies.